Lobbyist Turns Back on Foes of New Plant

January 23, 209 McClatchy

Tribune Regional News - Jeffrey Tomich and Kim Mcguire St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Groups trying to pave the way for a second AmerenUE nuclear plant
in Missouri have a new weapon in Jefferson City -- a top lobbyist for
environmentalists.
Irl L. Scissors, who previously represented a leading Missouri
environmental and conservation alliance, last week announced in an e-
mail to leaders of that group he was going to work to help undo the
law that prohibits utilities from charging customers for power plants
under construction.

Scissors, 38, is a one-time policy adviser to former Missouri
Democratic Gov. Bob Holden. Today, he heads his own firm, ILS
Consulting LLC. As a lobbyist, he has represented environmental and
conservation groups for more than three years, and has helped advance
legislation encouraging greater use of renewable energy and tighter
regulations of factory farms.

He declined to comment on his decision to help facilitate another
nuclear plant in central Missouri.

AmerenUE filed an application last year with the U.S. Nuclear
Regulatory Commission to build a second reactor next to its Callaway
plant outside Fulton, Mo. The St. Louis-based company said it won't
make a decision whether to build the plant until 2011 but submitted
the paperwork to the NRC to be eligible for federal loan guarantees.

The utility also has been working for months to undo a ban on
so-called Construction Work in Progress charges, saying it cannot
build another nuclear plant unless it is allowed to charge customers
during the five-year construction period.

Thursday, Sens. Delbert Scott, R-Lowry City, and Frank Barnitz,
D-Lake Spring, filed legislation that would repeal the CWIP ban.

Consumer groups argue that repealing the law isn't necessary and
have urged regulators to initiate meetings to discuss how the project
-- if it goes forward -- would be financed.

In Scissors' Jan. 14 e-mail, obtained by the Post-Dispatch, he
said he decided to help repeal the CWIP law after hearing from
legislators that there would be little opposition over environmental
concerns.

"Knowing the economic and political climate of the country and
Missouri, I do not feel the effort to stop CWIP is viable and I am not
comfortable leading this effort in Jefferson City," he wrote.
Scissors and
Missouri Votes Conservation lobbyist Kyna Iman have "never run into a
buzz saw like this," he said.

While it's not unusual for lobbyists to leave one client for
another, Scissors' sudden defection after the legislative session has
begun caught environmental leaders off-guard.

It's a "huge, unfortunate surprise," said Kathleen Logan Smith,
executive director of the Missouri Coalition for the Environment. She
declined to comment further.

Mark Haim, co-founder of Missourians for Safe Energy, a
Columbia-based group opposed to nuclear power, said he didn't know
Scissors well enough to comment on his move.

"I do know that taking us down the path of nuclear power would be
a profound mistake for Missouri," he said.

Scissors, in the e-mail, argued that his new position will give
him a voice on the issue in Jefferson City, and that greater reliance
on nuclear power along with renewable energy can help displace older
coal-fired power plants.

Missouri's CWIP law has been in place since voters approved it by
a 2-1 ratio in 1976. These days, environmentalists and anti-nuclear
groups have set as a key legislative priority to protect the law from
being undone.
They have established Missourians for Fair Electric Rates and
established a separate website, NoCWIP.org.

Scissors is the only lobbyist registered to represent Missouri
Conservation and Environment Alliance, according to the state Ethics
Commission. The alliance was created in 2007 to establish a bigger
presence in Jefferson City. Members include Audubon Missouri, the
Conservation Federation of Missouri, Missouri Coalition for the
Environment, Missouri Parks Association, Missouri Sierra Club and
Missouri Votes Conservation.

House Speaker Ron Richard, R-Joplin, has indicated that repealing
the CWIP ban is part of his job-generation agenda, even though Ameren
is still two years from making a firm decision and construction work
probably wouldn't begin until a year or two after that.

Richard, however, bristled at the thought that Ameren was using
its financial might to get its way. The company's political action
committee and various executives contributed more than $300,000 to
Missouri lawmakers in the most recent election cycle after a couple of
years of very little political giving.

"I don't care if they give me a dollar or a million dollars,"
Richard said. "If you can't take their money and eat their chicken and say no,
you've got no business being around here."

AmerenUE declined to respond when asked whether the company was
helping organize the coalition to repeal the CWIP law, even though the
utility would be the biggest benefactor. According to Scissors' e-
mail, the group includes utilities and other businesses, organized
labor and "faith-based groups."

The utility also has not provided a detailed cost projection, but
it has estimated that it would generate 2,500 temporary construction
jobs and 400 permanent jobs.

[email protected] -- 314-340-8320

[email protected] -- 314-340-8250